Businesses are struggling to maintain employment and pay wages for workers amid stagnant production, falling revenues, and mounting operating costs.

Vietnam is one of the countries with the fastest aging populations in the world. It is estimated that the golden population period (high percentage of working age adults) will end by 2038.

Many businesses are planning to reduce the number of employees on their payroll in the next few months.

Foreign enterprises are beginning to shift their investments into industries that require medium-level workers or higher-skilled workers as opposed to putting money into labour-intensive industries as in the past,

Only 11.6% of Vietnam’s 57.5 million workforce are high skilled, and the rate of English proficiency is 5%.

Many young Vietnamese have foregone the 9 to 5 routine and chosen to work in alternative types of employment.

Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth could slow to 4.9 percent in 2020 and 4.6 percent in 2022 amid intensifying risks such as the escalating trade tension between China and the US, according to the World Bank.